A poultry processing apparatus is known from EP-B-0 736 255 and from EP-B-0 782 823, both in the name of the applicant.
EP-B-1 848 282 discloses another more complex type of processing apparatus for poultry in which a drive is applied for jointly driving a plurality of transfer means, and coupling means associated with each transfer means for coupling to the drive.
Transfer units forming part of certain poultry processing apparatus operate in a relatively polluted environment, due to the grease and blood escaping from the poultry that is being processed. This grease and blood may even mingle with water that is applied in or around the processing apparatus, and the grease and blood may partly solidify. All in all the conditions prevailing in the processing apparatus are unpredictable and, within conventional processing devices, may result at times in poor reliability in the transfer of the poultry from a first line to a subsequent second line selected from the group include a slaughtering line, an evisceration line, a chilling line, a sorting line and a cutup line. This will even get worse and possibly unacceptable with increasing speed of processing. Current processing speeds are at a level of handling 8000 chickens per hour, but industry is aiming to processing speeds of at least 12,000 chickens per hour and possibly 15,000 chickens per hour. Certainly at these increased processing speeds, certain prior art processing apparatuses can be unsuitable.